For Lies
by Daylily Gold
Summary: Sometimes everything seems to be a lie, even love.


//May I just say that while I definitely do not in any way own any bit of "Pirates of the Caribbean," I absolutely adore Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and would do almost anything to own a little bit?

Eh… this might be pre-slash.  Or something.//

**For Lies**

It had been difficult for Will to call her by her first name.  Elizabeth.  It wasn't that it was a difficult name to pronounce, or that he was trying to be polite.  It was just that he hadn't wanted to speak that name without its due reverence, and a word uttered all the time begins to lose the power it once had.

Elizabeth.  She wasn't just a woman, wasn't just the Governor's daughter, wasn't just brave and strong and true.  She was perfection; she was an angel.  Love saw with truer eyes than any, and they saw holiness.

But that was the lie.

Will had loved her so completely and so rightly that he couldn't believe her to be just a woman, and that was what destroyed everything.  Because she was just a woman and it was his folly and his ultimate ruination that he couldn't accept a woman, with faults and fears and human scars, as Elizabeth.  That he couldn't love her when she was real and his, but only when she wasn't.

Once, he had only to look at her and the world would shimmer.  To hear her voice had been like walking on air; to actually touch her, hold her, and kiss her had been heaven itself.  But that was infatuation with dreams, and that does not last.  Love is what lasts, but he had loved the dream and been infatuated with the woman.

"You made a mistake.  People do.  You go back, make with the sweet words and sad eyes, she forgives you and all's well and wonderful again, savvy?"

"I told her that I don't love her any more."

"So you were angry!  So you were upset.  So what, mate?  And I'd put that down; your lady doesn't like a strong drink, should've seen what she did to all my rum-"

"I meant it, Jack."

And that was it; that was the whole mess, right there and glaring him in the eye.  He didn't love her anymore, and what was he without her?  Without Elizabeth.  His whole life had been about her from the moment he'd opened his eyes and seen her looking down at him, heard her speak and known her to be an angel.

But she wasn't an angel; she was a woman.

"What does that matter?  You care about her, don't you?  And she loves you.  Y'got marriages built on less than that."

"I can't."

"Yeah, and that's what you should be saying to that glass, there.  Can't drink anymore, William, put it down.  You've had enough."

"She's just a woman."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

And what did Captain Jack Sparrow know about love, marriage, or any of that anyway?  Less than nothing.  He didn't have to listen to this.  He was going home, back to the forge, where he could sleep in the hay and pretend none of this had happened.

"Told you you'd had enough."

"Shut up and help me up."

"Can you even walk?  Oh, see?  You can't.  Should've listened to ol' Jack-"

"Shut up."

"Betcha don't even know you're slurring all your words-"

"I said shut up."

And he'd been prepared to give all of that up and be a pirate, because sometimes the truth was the lie and the lie was the truth and a pirate could be a good man.  Because he'd made Elizabeth into a lie, but Jack had made himself into a truth.  And Will didn't know why he'd stayed anymore, or why any of it mattered.

So what, Jack had said.  So what, indeed.  Maybe he should just go with that for a while.  Let consequences happen to other people.

"No, not her house, what are you doing?"

"What, you want to sleep in that damn smithy?  What's wrong with you?  You make up with Elizabeth, go to sleep in her arms-"

"I told you I didn't love her anymore!"

And he wasn't going to lie.  She had never lied, after all.  He owed her that.

"You're angry that she's 'just a woman,' aren't you?"

"Shut up."

"You're going to regret this."

But they were at the smithy.  This was where he had lived yet another lie.  He was tired of lies.  Why was he here again?

"What are you doing now?"

"Not here.  Can't sleep here."

"Oh, for- you want to sleep on the Pearl?"

He swayed for a moment, thinking about that, and then warm hands were holding him upright and Jack was peering at him, frowning a little but there was laughter in his eyes and Will knew he was never going to hear the end of this, but that would be nice, too, because he'd have to stay around Jack to never hear the end of it.

"Only if you sail her out to sea while I'm still sleeping."

//Review if you like, flame if you have to, blink in confusion if you just don't get it.//


End file.
